Former associates of Jimmy Lai report that the Chinese government is now going after (more of) Lai’s property. The 78-year-old was recently sentenced to twenty more years in prison. But to add injury to injury, in early April Hong Kong authorities submitted a court filing to seize Lai’s “offense-related properties” (Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2026).
It isn’t clear which properties the government intends to seize. Before Apple Daily shut down, Mr. Lai provided about $70 million in shareholder loans to his publishing firm to fund its transition from print to digital. Hong Kong officials may be trying to block repayment to him by seizing that $70 million loan.
As directors of the company Mr. Lai founded, Next Digital, we saw expropriation up close. Hong Kong’s Secretary for Security John Lee issued a statement in 2021 freezing Mr. Lai’s 71% shareholding in the company. Mr. Lee also barred us from using the company’s funds to pay for ink, electricity or staff. A government agency that controlled our land lease demanded we surrender the property.
The asset-freezing order meant death for Apple Daily and cost some 800 jobs. Liquidators under government control then sold the company in secret, with no accounting of the proceeds from the sale of its printing presses and other assets.
Hong Kong’s seizure of Mr. Lai’s assets is a warning to other companies. Under the Chinese Communist Party, Hong Kong has become an unsafe place for business.
Of course, further expropriation of Lai cannot materially affect him, since as things are now he is stuck in prison for the rest of his life. He would not be allowed to use his wealth to make his prison cell more comfortable.
His heirs would be harmed. The authors state that Lai used to always live in rentals in Hong Kong so as to deprive the CCP of the ability to grab at least this kind of tangible asset. Perhaps he hid some of his wealth offshore in a way that his family can access and the party-state cannot.
